Agriculture startups (AgTechs): a bibliometric study: Startups da agricultura (AgTechs): um estudo bibliométrico

Purpose: Conduct a bibliometric study on agricultural startups (AgTech) and the main concepts related to them in the literature. Theoretical framework: The agribusiness sector has the challenge of producing food sustainably to ensure food security for the planet's population by 2050. In this context, there is an exponential growth in investments in agriculture technology (Kakani et al., 2020). Most of these technologies are developed and marketed by AgTechs, the technological startups in agribusiness. AgTechs are expressive in the 4.0 agriculture scenario, where more precise and environmentally sustainable technologies are sought (Dutia, 2014. However, despite the growing number of AgTechs, few studies present their main concepts in the scientific literature. Design/methodology/approach: The Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases were used together with softwares: SciMAT and VOSviewer to develop the bibliometric study. The SciMAT was used to clean up raw bibliographic data, analyze, and configure the analysis. The maps generated were produced at VOSviewer and based on co-citation for the periods defined in the SciMAT. Findings: The results showed that the theme is not well consolidated in the literature, but it is in a dizzying growth, with 71.3% of the articles having been published in the last three years in 79 journals and with publications covering 44 countries. Research, Practical & Social implications: the AgTech theme is consolidating in literature where digital and disruptive technologies are concerned, however, the human factors, business models, and management aspects involved in this topic are being neglected, which resulted in the proposal of a Research Agenda that can help both academics and practitioners to analyze AgTechs aspects that appear to not be in focus right now. Originality/value: The study brought important contributions to a better understanding of the term AgTech in the literature and to the improvement of concepts related to this ecosystem